We were shut down once on Cayambe and once on Cotopaxi on this trip. The weather was brutal. Our guide Billy from RMI got consensus from us to go on an all out sufferfest and push to the top in a final summit bid. It was tough but in the end we stood on top covered in an inch of rime ice. Good times.

Great climb, quite windy but clear other than some low clouds that still gave us decent views (but not of the crater). 7+ hours to the top, only about 2 hour decent. Snow conditions were very good, got a lucky break in the weather (that had included ice/snow/drizzle in the days prior) for a perfect climb and summit day.

Wow!!! What an incredible mission that was!! Others had told me that it was a reasonably straight forward climb, but the strong winds on Sunday morning made it a very tough ascent. The route was quite straight forward, had to jump over a few crevasses, but other than that, snow conditions were excellent, but strong winds really make this climb very challenging. Left the refugio at 1.15am and summited at 6.15am, exhausted, emotional, and very relieved. Thanks to my guide Nicholas, he is the man!!!

Summited, I think. I am thankful to have my daughter, Guide Edgar, and my camera to help me reconstruct the events that took place between 12:30 am and 6:35 am (I think my watch said 6:35 but I was encapsulated in a layer of rime ice). The landscape with all its shapes, curves, angles was surreal. I will sit down with my daughter to analyze the photos to determine what was real or an altitude induced hallucination. The mouse or vole-like mammal running around in circles on the snow at 18,000 was real! Great experience!

Amazing mountain! Arrived at the refuge late afternoon and started climbing with our guide at 1:30 AM. Weather was very poor with snow and wind all night long. No view at the top, as there were clouds and winds blowing up the mountain. Really cold day and our guide apologized for the bad weather. I can say im proud of myself because only a handfull people made it to the summit that day.

Four teams today - two American (as one party) and two French as one party. None of us made it. One team went down due to altitude sickness, and the rest of us reached the very same crevasse I mentioned in my last log in September at about 5400 meters. Again, we tried to pick our way through it but couldnt quite do it. Had to jump a little onto a serac and climb up that to continue through the mess. The French teams watching us work on the ice decided to turn back at that point and we shortly followed. The weather was less than desireable with some wind and blowing snow, lot of rime ice. Disappointed but had a really fun time and felt great most of the way. Plus I still have a year left to finally get through that crevasse!

I vastly underestimated this peak. The objective danger and crevasse danger were both more than anyone I talked to let on. Took off from the refuge at about 12:30 and we were on the top before 6am... climbed completely by moonlight.

Was part of a great team, led by RMI guides Casey, JT, and Freddie (Ecuadoran climbing machine). Snowed all night, headed out at about 1 AM. First team out of the gate, so we had to kick steps all the way up. Our group was big, and for the size, made good overall time. Summitted in just a bit over 7 hrs. Back down in 3:10. Windy, a couple of tricky parts/crevasses, but a great climb.

Attempted to climb Cotopaxi as the third climb of my trip to Ecuador. Had to turn around at 5500 meters as I was completely out of gas and didnt think I could make it back even if I made it to the summit.

Great climb up the normal route. Full moon = No headlamp! Amazing route up through tropical glaciers! This was the one, beautiful sunny day we had in Ecuador. Very lucky. Only a couple of other parties on the mountain and in the hut. Great climb, don't miss this one!

Arriving at 7pm to the cottage / camping. Officially not possible to enter after 3pm and a taxi without special permit! Quite long argue at the ranger station.
Started with a friend at 1.00 am without a guide. Following other groups in the beginning to find the way. They all went to slowly so after too much waiting behind them we went into "lead" making the way through deep snow in the upper parts for all others. After 5 hours on the top - cloudy and windy. Was very easy to follow the route. One difficult part at about 5700m. On the way down taking with us an exhausted tourist who was bivouacking (freezing) at about 5700m and waiting for his mate and guide to come back from the top.

It snowed on the days before our climb and when we arrived at Jose Ribas hut on the 13th of November. We found a lot of loose snow on some of the traverses of the normal route, so belaying was mainly mental safety... :) We had some fog and clouds during most of the ascent in the night and early morning. At least we got a few views when summiting around 7.30 a.m. because we broke through the cloud cover at app. 5.700 m.
Very nice and perfectly shaped mountain. I'm glad that we made Cotopaxi, since we got no chance on Chimborazo after that: too much snow and avalanche danger - we had to turn around on the 17th of November already at 5.250 m.